At 2 a.m. on Jan. 23 at a Sundance Film Festival soiree hosted by Spike Lee, Chris Rock was confronted by a Tea Party advocate who took offense to the comedian’s assertion the movement was racist.
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Rock allegedly reacted to the man by snatching away his video camera, which was being operated by a woman, and hurling it across the room. Then he supposedly challenged the man to a fight.
What Rock didn’t know at the time was that the man, Jason Mattera, was writing a book on Hollywood hypocrisy, and Rock shouting, “Let’s throw down!” while standing behind a couple of burly bodyguards fit in perfectly with the author’s narrative of celebrities whose deeds don’t match their rhetoric.
Rock probably also didn’t realize that video of the encounter would be used to market the book, and that effort began Wednesday. Mattera, in fact, has video of several “A-list” celebrities, he told The Hollywood Reporter, and he’ll be rolling clips out piecemeal over several weeks.
“I confront them on statements they have made in the past that haven’t been challenged or on the hypocrisy that I discuss in the book,” Mattera said.
Mattera wouldn’t say which celebrity encounters he’ll post on the Internet, but an educated guess suggests one or more of them could feature such outspoken liberals as Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Alec Baldwin, Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Whoopi Goldberg and Arianna Huffington, all of whom are prominently featured in the book.
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Mattera’s two-minute video of Rock was first posted at Breitbart.com, and it features a promotion for his book, Hollywood Hypocrites: The Devastating Truth About Obama’s Biggest Backers, along with the scuffle. The fireworks don’t last too long because the camera is quickly disabled, allegedly because Rock “chucks it 50 feet,” according to Mattera.
The Rock video, below, begins with text of a quote from the comedian likening the Tea Party to “racism” and calling its participants “insane.” Mattera is seen as a fan in cordial conversation with Rock until Mattera asks about the Tea Party, at which point Rock walks away but then turns around and appears to grab the video camera.
“He attacked my camerawoman,” Mattera said. “Oh, yeah, it was a funny sight to see. He was lunging at me, but his bodyguards were blocking him. He was acting all big and bad with his bodyguards between us.”
A representative for Rock said the actor’s attorney was looking into the video.
Mattera’s strategy for marketing his book, which was released Tuesday, is reminiscent of Ben Shapiro’s promotion of Primetime Propaganda, whereby the author rolled out over the Internet snippets of 39 taped interviews, many of which had top television producers, writers, directors and executives acknowledging that their liberal biases seep into their TV shows.
Email: Paul.Bond@thr.com
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